ANTH Colloquium - Paul Rozin (UPenn)

Monday, October 14, 2019 - 12:00pm

3260 South Street, Penn Museum Rm 345

Human Food Choice: Cultural, Biological, Psychological, and Historical Perspectives

I will consider multiple explanatory accounts for the existence and spreading popularity of a number of different foods. These will include sugar, chocolate, manioc, corn (the Mexican tortilla), chili pepper, pizza, meat, insects and sushi. Within the same context, I will discuss the emotion of disgust and the associated sympathetic magical principle of contagion. I will pay particular attention to psychological mechanisms of discovery and spread, and the contrast between adaptive accounts and the actual origin of new entities. In this context, I will discuss the principle of preadaptation in biological and cultural evolution.

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